A review by paperknotbooks
Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

adventurous challenging dark mysterious reflective tense slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

2.5

It’s great for gritty scene lovers, and made me compare to books like Annihilation and maybe even Severance or The Raven King. But those books have excellent dialogue, characters, and narrative flow. This book fell flat in all those areas.

I kept having to put this down because the story stiffly shifts from one room, then another, then town, then something trippy happens. The plot was constantly interrupted with stories of past figures and happenings, which would have been something better discovered organically, or detail revealed to the reader through alternate chapters. So what I’m saying is that the book could use some more editing.

By the end, I think it was trying to draw parallels of the Grant Wood painting American Gothic,
if the knowledge of the figures are father and daughter, there’s a light conspiracy twist of incestuous relationship… idk!


The book was certainly unsettling, and full of ‘shrooms. I’m guessing with how often the word “putrefaction” came up, they would be particularly smelly ones! 

Expand filter menu Content Warnings